Great Bear sets opening date

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) - A popular winter destination in Sioux Falls is hoping to open by the end of the month.

Officials at Great Bear Ski Resort have selected December 22 as the season opener, weather permitting. They have been making snow for a few weeks, and the low temperatures in the forecast are going to help.

“What we are looking for is if we can get daytime highs in the upper teens, overnight lows in the single digits, with ‘not’ a 40 mph wind, we can make a lot of snow real fast,” said Dan Grider, Great Bear General Manager. “We have experienced a little of that the last few days. We got the warm up. It will be cold for the weekend. Next week looks really good. So as you can see we just start blowing piles of snow and then we can start pushing them out.”

Times for skiing and snowboarding will be 3 to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, noon to 10 p.m. on Fridays, and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekends.